I was thinking the other day about something that once happened to me and started wondering...

One time, I was flying along and accidentally aborted from hyperspace. I found myself sitting in empty space. I reset my coordinates, and took off again.

I was wondering if it would be possible to take enough raw materials to build a station, abort form hyperspace into empty space and build a base here? It would be virtually undetectable to anyone but you, because you have the station in your inventory and could find it again. This would be a perfect and undiscoverable base that nobody could ever find you at without somehow tracking you?

Precisely the reason that smugglers and other unsavoury types like to own once in deep space. Nothing short of a Tartan or an MC80 etc... will find you and if they do manage to locate you then you can all just flee the wrath of the mighty capital ship.

Not really Phillip. Sensor power decreases the further away it is from the entity that has them. Its not full sensor powers everywhere. Take a look at the sensor rules page since you seem to not fully grasp their rules. TO defeat ECM you would have to have a greater sensor power than the ECM on that square (possibly equal to as well, just can't be bothered to check). So with ECM 7, you will have to have a sensor power of 8 on that square. Best satellite has a sensor of 8 which is good. But thats only on that square. the squares around it are less in power (6 maybe), decreasing the further out it goes.

Which means that only the caps that have 10+ sensors can see it when they are not right on top of it. 21 to see a reasonable disatance around you. Even in your prized Tartan you will only detect any hideouts in maybe a 3x3 square around your ship - thats a lot of moving around to see if there is one there.

When I said "spam" satellites I meant something along the lines of putting them every three squares or even closer instead of the usual nine-twelve needed to simple cover a system.

While the ECM has its advantages, it's not totally useful in sensor-grid systems. If you wanted it to be secret from only certain people, an asteroid hideout in a system can be practical. But if you want it secret from everyone, then an LSC in deep space is a better bet.

Asteroid hideouts make a great early-warning outpost for system defense though, since they have plenty of sensors and the ECM allows the defenders to take action without the attacker knowing they were spotted.

I'm not the type of person to warp into deep space, then go everywhere in the system in my commercially available 8 sensor vehicle just to find a hideout. And most other people wouldn't be willing to that either. Unless there was a stash of X-Wings or X-45's in the hideout that I could grab. And even then they'd just depart once I knew where they were or destroy me with the defences of the hideout depending on my ship type.

Unless you happen to be the leader of a Smuggler, Pirate, Merc, or Bounty Hunter faction, and the only one there with the privileges to boot, there will always be at least ONE other person that knows where your asteroid hideout is. Since the station can only be built by one of those factions, and hence at least temporarily owned by them, someone will always at least have SEEN where you constructed it. Whether they take note or remember is another story but someone would have to make the station over to you and therefore would be able to see it's location in their inventory.

That takes a little out of the secrecy of such a station but it would still be superior to an LSC. If all you want is moderate security (deep space built) then you should go with an LSC since they are far less expensive to build and can be built by anyone with a hauler as small as an Action VI.

Are you sure Hal? I thought it was possible as long as the ship was longer than the station and had enough capacity. I heard something about somebody doing it in the past, and it was frowned upon. I also heard something about it being made impossible because if that incident, but I'm pretty sure it never happened and that was what was suggested.

I am not 100% certain, no, but I'm confident enough to have put my answer here in response to the question, which should tell you something. If someone can verify whether they have done it, or tried it and failed, I would love to hear from them.

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"May the Grace of Ara go with you, and His Vengeance be wrought upon your enemies."